D. Geraint James

David Geraint James FRCP (2 January 1922 – 20 October 2010) was a Welsh physician who devoted his career to the treatment of sarcoidosis, setting up a specialist clinic for the condition and earning the nickname "King of Sarcoid". was born on 2 January 1922 in the mining village of Treherbert, Rhondda Fawr Valley, Wales. His father, local headmaster David James, wrote a regular column in Welsh for The Western Mail, a daily national paper. James had one stepbrother, Arnold, from his father's first marriage, who later became the town clerk of Stepney. James's mother, Sarah (née Davies) who was widowed, had a family farm in Llanarth, near New Quay, Cardiganshire and already had three daughters when she married James's father. James was her fourth child and was just six years old when his father died.

Second World War During his time as a student at the Middlesex Hospital, James assisted the casualties of The Blitz. With colleagues, he transported the wounded to safety and fire-watched at night. The meeting lasted for three days and was the first international conference on sarcoidosis. He was later involved in setting up the World Association of Sarcoidosis and other Granulomatous Disorders (WASOG) in 1987, in Milan, Italy and became its first president. Subsequently, with the personal financial support of Gianfranco Rizzato, the journal Sarcoidosis, later renamed Sarcoidosis Vasculitis and Diffuse Lung Diseases, became the association's official publication. He was inspired by Jonathan Hutchinson, William Osler, and William Harvey. After the death of his wife Sheila in 2001, he wrote daily on the lives of notable medical men and women. His last two articles came were published in The History of Medical Biography.

James was involved in a number of other societies, either as a member or as president, including the Cymmrodorion, the Glamorganshire Society, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Harveian, the Hunterian Society, the American Osler Society and the History of Medicine Society of Wales.

Death and legacy James died on 20 October 2010.

Selected publications By 1958, James had written seven papers on sarcoidosis, two being on its effects on eyes, and had published his first book The diagnosis and treatment of infections (1957).

In his 1985 book Major Problems in Internal Medicine Vol.24. Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous Disorders, co-authored with W. Jones, and published by W. B. Saunders, the clinical and diagnostic findings of James's 818 sarcoid patients covering a period of 30 years, are evaluated.

In 1999, with Professor Alimuddin Zumla, he co-edited the standard textbook on the subject of sarcoidosis, The Granulomatous Disorders.

Selected articles

"The Riddle of Uveitis", Postgraduate Medical Journal (1964) 40, pp. 686–691 "Postgraduate medicine and personalities-1925", Postgraduate Medical Journal (1985)61, pp. 861–864

Books and book chapters